Steven N.
Governments have to respect international arrest warrants, said Péter Márki-Zay, the prime ministerial candidate for Hungary’s opposition coalition (pictured). “We will fully cooperate with the Croatian authorities in their criminal investigations,” the politician told Balkaninsight.com, referring to the Zsolt Hernádi case.
The opposition leader answered with a clear yes to whether he would support extraditing Hernádi, CEO of Hungary’s oil and gas company MOL. Hungary cannot back anyone suspected of a crime, he stated, as governments are obligated to respect international arrest warrents.
The Croatian prosecutor’s office indicted Zsolt Hernádi in 2013 on corruption and organized criminal charges after an investigation into MOL’s takeover of Croatian energy company INA in 2009 revealed that the CEO had paid off then-Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader.
In the earlier stages of the proceedings, Hungary denied Hernádi’s extradition despite an international arrest warrant having been issued against the oil executive.
Most recently, at the end of October, the Supreme Court of Zagreb sentenced Ivo Sanader to six years in prison and Zsolt Hernádi to two years in prison for bribery, although the MOL executive remains a free man in Hungary for the time being.
[HVG][Photo: Birn Balkans / YouTube]
